Vietnam & Cambodia II – Day 5

Another big day of site visits kept us busy.  But first, Doug and I ran around the corner to a little bakery we had spotted the night before to grab breakfast treats – we got a bag full of delicious stuff for $4 that we munched in the van on our way to the TB & Lung Hospital.  This campus also houses the building you would get sent to if you arrived at Saigon airport and they suspected you of having H1N1.  As Todd said, “If you weren’t sick before, you would be soon…”

From there we spent time at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, meeting with many of their students who had set up poster presentations and then a grand feast for lunch.  I felt bad because they were all so eager to present and I could only understand about half of their work, if that since it was all science-y.  It was fun to chat with them though.

In the afternoon we flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia and thankfuly our flight this time was much less dramatic than last month.  Last month we flew through heavy rain and got put into a holding pattern, unable to land due to winds.  We were pretty sure we were going to be diverted back to Vienam or down to Phnom Penh when all of sudden we started descending.  Landing actually went fine, but upon arrival we learned that the plane before us had landed on the wrong vector, immediately took off again when realizing that, and almost took out the air traffic control tower.  So, the nice easy flight this trip was very welcome.  Flying in though, we began to see the remnants of Typhoon Ketsana, which soaked northern Cambodia and left behind big flooding.

For our first night, this flooding impacted us mightily as we learned that Madame Butterfly, our favorite restaurant from the last trip, was closed, as were many others.  We were forced to eat in the hotel, very sad.

Vietnam II – Day 4

Big day of site visits, all of which went well – at the fish sauce factory we got to wear hairnets along with our jackets and fresh shoes this time   I love the bottling and labeling area because it reminds me of Sesame Street showing how things are made:

Once work was done, I went down the street to pick up my finished Ao Dai – I really like the green silk for the top.  Across the street from there, Doug and Todd each bought paintings from a cool contemporary Vietnamese Art Gallery that had really neat pieces.  Dinner was around the corner at XU, which is pretty swank and pricey for Saigon.  I also remembered the menu having more Vietnamese food than what we saw tonight.  It was still good, but service was slow so it wasn’t the best spot we could have chosen sadly.  After dinner, we checked out the rooftop bar at the Caravelle hotel.  It is only the 9th floor, so you feel like you are sitting in teh city which is great.  We all ordered teh Saigon Special, which was like an orange cosmo.  Back at the hotel I dressed to go to the gym and then realized it closed in 15 minutes – where’s 24 Hour Fitness when you need it?

Observation of the Day:  I now have a “fortification skirt.”  During lunch I realized that the skirt I was wearing today to the fish sauce factory is the same skirt I wore to the flour mill in Ghana.

Vietnam II – Day 2

 With no actual meetings today, Todd and I decided to serve the greater good by eating and shopping at places that make a difference in Saigon.  First stop was the Sozo bakery, suggested by Shelby C.  It was located over the backpacker area of town, serving up mainly western style baked goods but they key is that they are a hospitality training program for local youth (like Farestart).  I had a chocolate chip muffin and bought som M&M cookies for later.  Todd had lemon zest pound cake that looked pretty good.  You can read more about the program here:  http://sozocentre.com/

Next stop was a shop down the street called Blue Dragon that works with local artisans around Vietnam to make crafts using recycled goods – they had lots of cool bags.  I settled on a small purse made form Tiger Beer cans to add to my unexpectedly growing crazy purse collection from around the world.  http://www.gobluedragon.com/

And our last good deed stop of the day was the Sesame restaurant, also a hospitality training program (http://sesameschool.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/introduction-to-the-blog/).  Sesame is a little farther out form the main part of town, housed in an old school.  we felt slightly guilty as we drove up in our big van as there were only the two of us – I think they expected a big group.  Lunch was delicious though – we only had two choices of three course meals:  Western or Asian.  We each got Asian which started with shrimp & lotus salad, then strifried shrimp with rice and veggies, followed by golden watermelon for dessert.  It was windy as we sat outside, and I started to worry about Doug flying in from Hong Kong over the typhoon.

After lunch we toured the Reunification Palace, which is a cool building.  Built in the 1960’s it has a retro feel too it – in the basement are all the war rooms, and on the top floor are all the party rooms, decked out Austin Powers style.

we did a little more shopping near the hotel which was fun.  I went to one of the nearby tailors to get an outfit made, so we’ll see how it turns out!  Then I headed to airport to pick-up Doug.  Luckily all went well with his flight.  For dinner we went to Hoi An, which is the sister restaurant to Mandarine, where we ate the night before.  They are very similar and both very good.  Presentations were once again amazing and their signature spring rolls very good.

Observation of the day:  I have yet to wear my sunglasses.

Vietnam II – Day 1

Back in Saigon, we spent the morning doing work stuff, but in the afternoon had  a little free time so we visited the War Remnants Museum.  This is not a cheery place to go – very much like visiting one of the concentration camp sites where the brutality of war hits you full force.  It is especially interesting though to see this war from the perspective of the Vietnamese after being raised with the American view your whole life.  The exhibits are mainly photographic, but everything is very up-to-date where pertinent, such as resolutions on the US responsibility to Agent Orange victims which just came down about 4 months ago.

Later that evening, we met for happy hour at the rooftop lounge then dinner at Mandarin.  Mandarin was down a small alley that seemed a little sketchy until all of a sudden it opened up into a small enclave of several restaurants and clubs – very random.  The food was delicious and the presentations unbelievable.  Checkout teh carved flowers with our spring roll:

I also had crab & corn soup and grilled fish with passion fruit sauce.

Observation of the day:  The Sheraton leaves me two free bottles of Aquafina in the bathroom each day.  Out by the TV though, you also have the option to drink Evian, but that costs you $5 USD per bottle.  How crazy is that?  I may be biased b/c I hate Evian, but who would pay that when you have free water 10 feet away?

SEA-NRT-SGN II – Day 1

Three weeks later I embark on a deja vu trip back to Saigon and Siem Reap.  We actually have a whole week on the ground this time though!  I was taking the same Northwest route again, leaving at 2:00pm.  From the lounge at S8 I watched BK’s plane from Delhi/Frankfurt pull up to gate S11.  Sadly he couldn’t clear customs in time before I had to board my plane to Tokyo.

Some how I ended up on the window which I hate on long flights b/c I feel trapped, so I only got up once the whole trip when the aisle guy got up.  The flight to Tokyo didn’t seem as long this time which was nice, and we saw Mount McKinley as we flew over Alaska.

In Tokyo the once again moved our departure time up 30 minutes.  Combined with the fact that there were only about 25 people on the flight, this resulted in me & Todd’s names being called out on the PA system to get to the boarding gate immediately which was kind of crazy.  After rushing over to the gate though, they then pulled me aside for security screening as Todd and everyone on the bus watched.  The lady was going really slow (which I suppose is a good thing), including wanding my feet.  But before she could go through my backpack, the gate agent said something to her that I can only assume was “The bus full of people is waiting, let the girl go.”  I was released to the bus.

Todd and I were the only people in business class, so the attendants were very attentive.  Upon boarding we were warned about bumps along the way due to a Typhoon in the Philippines.  Great!  The flight actually wasn’t too bad, but it will be interesting to see how the week’s weather plays out, as Typhoon Ketsana is now headed towards the central coast of Vietnam.  We landed about an hour late, so went straight to bed once we arrived at the Sheraton.

Movies watched = 3 (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, The Proposal, Adventureland)

Discographies listened to = 3 (Colbie Caillat, Sugarland, Erin McCarley)

Vietnam & Cambodia – Day 3

We spent all day on site visits which was fun, especially just driving around the city.  We noticed big pop-up bakery stands getting setting up for National Day, and another crazy site all over the city are the power lines.  Massive amounts of lines go from pole to pole, and at one point we saw workers on rickety bamboo ladders trying to bundle some of them up a bit.  I feel especially bad for folks whose apartment decks open up right where the wires hang – they totally lose their view.

 

In the evening we flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia which was quite a flight.  It’s only 45 minutes, so I wasn’t sure what kind of plane we would be on – luckily it was big, especially because it was raining pretty hard.  as we boarded it was funny to see that while the plane was only about a 1/3 full, they had seated everyone together in the middle section.  we just grabbed seats up front at that point.  Because of the rain, the ride was a bit bumpy, and as we neared Siem Reap we got put into a holding pattern because of winds.  We thought we might get sent back to Vietnam or diverted to Phnom Penh, but all of sudden we started to descend and it was actually totally smooth.  As we met our driver though, we learned that the plane before landed on the wrong vector so touched down, then took back off immediately, almost knocking out the air traffic control tower.  CRAZY!

We had a great dinner out at Madame Butterfly’s, set in a big two-story open air house.   I wasn’t sure what Khmer food was, but I had Caramel Pork with pineapple and onions that was delicious.  Then it was just back to the hotel for emails and sleep because we had an early morning the next day.

Vietnam – Day 2

Woke up to a bright sunny morning which was great because it’s the rainy season so I expected it to be wet today given the rain we saw when we arrived last night.  The view from my hotel was fun to see and I was anxious to start the day and see the city.

The one thing you can’t escape in HCMC are the motorbikes – it is the main form of transportation and they are everywhere.  Traffic is a maze of bikes and cars weaving in and out but it keeps flowing for the most part, somehow.  I’m pretty sure I would die if I ever tried to drive here, and definitely if I was on a bike.  This is a a pretty light flow of traffic below, but look at all the red flags – there are red flags and banners hanging everywhere for National Day which is on Wednesday:

We spent the morning on a site visit, then grabbed lunch at an upscale Vietnamese spot.  I had Bun with grilled pork that was delicious.  In the afternoon we scoped out a hotel, then had some free time to wander one of the big markets.  Like most big markets, each stall was over-stuffed with products and a bored shopkeeper.  I didn’t see anything very interesting to get, but I also don’t plan on doing any shopping on this trip since it’s so short.

Next we visited the Giac Lam Pagoda, the oldest pagoda in HCMC, built in 1744.  It is a very peaceful spot and the folks with apartments that back onto it must be very lucky to have a respite from all the traffic noise.  Driving back to the hotel, the afternoon rain started to trickle down and by the time TD and I met at the roof bar for happy hour a full downpour began.

The rooftop bar at the Sheraton is renowned for it’s view, but with all the rain we couldn’t see much.  They did have happy hour going on though, so it was buy one, get one free – I had a bright green Kiwi Cooler and we shared some fried spring rolls.  For dinner we headed to Huong Lai, the Farestart of Seattle.  It was pretty good as well – we shared more spring rolls and then I had sweet & sour squid ( I had seen lots of fresh squid at the market so I was excited to see some on a menu!).  TD had beef with lemongrass and chili.  Food is pretty cheaper here, so dinner for three was easily under $40 – a very nice change after a week in Reykjavik  where dinner was easily $40/person 

Back home I hit the gym and the computer to catch up a bit.  Now off to bed!

PS – never forget to contribute to the Lonely Old and the Unhappy:

SEA-NRT-SGN – Day 1

About a month ago I found out I’d being going to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC aka Saigon) for work, and since I’ve never been to Asia I was super excited.  I will actually be going twice which is great, because this first trip is only three days on the ground.  Yep, that’s right – 20 hours of travel, 72 hours on the ground, and another 20 hours of travel.  All just two weeks after I’ve returned from Iceland – craziness!  And oh yeah, about two days before leaving we decided to spend one of the days in Cambodia…

But let me tell you, flying business class makes all the difference in the world, even if you’re on Northwest (like I was).  The ability to stretch out makes it so much more bearable.  As usual I didn’t sleep much and was happy to be nearing Tokyo until the pilot told us it was gonna be bumpy for the last 30 minutes and descent.  It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought until we got near the ground and then the plane was really rocky as we landed.  But we landed and that’s all that matters.  Tokyo Narita airport was not nearly as bustling and hectic as I envisioned it to be – it was quiet, calm and fairly empty.  Maybe because it was Sunday night?  We killed an hour in the lounge, then boarded our flight to HCMC.

Movies watched:  3 (“I Love You Man,”  “My Life in Ruins,” and parts of “Star Trek”)

Once you land in Japan, you feel like it should be just a short hop over to Vietnam, but no.  We still had another SIX hour flight to go.  Amazingly enough the Tokyo-HCMC flight is NW #1.  The aircraft we were on did not seem worthy of being flight #1 though, perhaps because teh flight was only about a third full.  There were only three of us in business class, and the seats were not nearly as nice as the trans-pacific ones.  Oh well, still better than coach class!  We also had very diverse crew – all american, white, black, asian, male, female.  It was not what I was expecting at all on that flight.

Movies watched:  1 (“Confessions of a Shopaholic”)

We landed in HCMC around 11:00pm, picked up our visas, found our driver and headed to the Sheraton.  since it was late Sunday night, there wasn’t much traffic out, but we still passed several folks on motorbikes.  I was surprised to see them wearing helmets and later found out this is a new law.  The Sheraton is really nice – definitely a step up from my usual accommodations.  It was a long day, but I’m in Vietnam!